Empowering Referees Since 2011

Case Study: What's Wrong With This Picture?, Vol. 3

You may recognize the referee in this photo – and wonder why in the world he’s in the position he is, so let me explain. This photo is from a high school game using the two-man system, which requires the referees to stay wide in order to make offside decisions.

Now to the photo itself. What is wrong is probably obvious, so the question is this: under what circumstances would a foul NOT be whistled?

Let’s hear from some of the younger/less experienced referees on this one. Can you imagine a scenario where you wouldn’t blow the whistle here?

20 thoughts on “Case Study: What's Wrong With This Picture?, Vol. 3”

Could have been a 50/50 challenge. There also could be some type of advantage developing that we can’t see from the picture Keeper is looking at the ball, not the player, so I’m more likely to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Well, it wouldn’t be a foul if the goalie was on the white team… in fact I would hope that a team wouldn’t have a black main uniform and partially black goalie uniform, but that’s another issue. Those are conceivable circumstances, right?

Well not being there it’s hard to say but given just the picture I could see two things:
1: The attacker was coming in way to hot and crashing into the GK in an attempt to win a header that the GK had already punched out. While the GK was coming down as the attacker was crashing in the GK trying to protect herself by shielding herself with her hands and leg.
2: The GK missed the ball and smacked the attacker in the head and put a knee into the attacker’s back.

Without being there no way to be 100% sure but this is just my thoughts.
2 man systems for any match in a very bad idea!

Still photo, hard to determine a lot of things, however there is a good teaching point here. One thing referees often miss is that the goalkeeper is not allowed to use their knee as a weapon. If it is used to help with the jump (as 100% of gks claim) that is fine, but if it that knee makes contact with the opponent -or- causes the opponent to alter their play for the ball, then it is a foul. Think about this, how many field players lead for a header with their knee that high? Goalkeepers are not awarded any extra powers other than the ability to to use their hands on the ball within their own penalty area. Their is nothing in the laws that say they can use their body differently to “protect” themselves.

So, here’s what actually happened: the attacking player had just headed the ball when the photo was taken. The ball went in the goal, so play wasn’t stopped. The attacker was satisfied with beating the keeper and scoring on a nice header and didn’t look for any sanction of the keeper. At this point, white had the game well in hand and went on to win a lopsided victory. Epilogue: the attacker in the photo now plays D1 major conference soccer.